Our group was inspired by the visual potential of music. After exploring the patterns that are created when an oscillator is used with a loudspeaker, our group did some research on these patterns called Lissajous curves. We chose vocalization specifically and used Japanese software called Sound Lissajous Meter to gather the patterns that emerged from our voices. We observed three patterns that came from the three notes it takes to make a simple harmony. We kept the Hz set at 100 since it produced the most stable curve, and since it is within the human vocal range. We kept the gain set at 5.0x so the microphone wouldn’t be too sensitive. This would also contribute to the stable pattern, which would be easier to find equations for in Desmos. In order to visualize our sound, we used Desmos’ 2D graphing calculator functions to figure out the equations of the curves. We used the equation (A sin(bt) + D, B sin(at+f) + c).
Using Desmos, we began by plotting a basic parametric equation to create a similar shape to the curve that we got from the software. Then we adjusted the equations and the values of each variable to get closer to the shape of the curve. Each variable has different effects on the appearance of the final curve. Once we fit equations to the curves, we merged them onto one graph. Their overlap allows us to visualize our harmony.
